The present invention relates to sound reproduction devices, to an interface for exchanging user-defined, auditory scenario-dependent reproduction parameter settings, to an audio system comprising such an interface, to a data structure for a reproduction parameter setting and associated auditory scenario information, to a method for training user-defined and auditory scenario-dependent reproduction parameter settings for a sound reproduction device, and to a corresponding computer program.
Reproducing acoustic signals recorded at a different location and/or a different time plays an important role in many regions of everyday life. The purpose of such a sound reproduction may, for example, be providing the listener with information or entertaining the listener. The terms “sound reproduction” and “sound reproduction device” relate to reproducing sound or acoustic signals in general. In order to cover the great number of varying situations of applying sound reproduction, a plurality of recording, storing and reproduction devices have been developed in the past.
The reproduction of an acoustic signal recorded before and/or at a different location typically differs from the original signal, which may be attributed to the limiting characteristics of the recording, storing and reproduction devices used. Most common sound reproduction devices allow a user or listener to adjust sound reproduction in dependence on his or her preferences. An example of such an adjustment is setting the volume of sound reproduction. Sound or tone characteristics may also be set in most sound reproduction devices, which has an effect on the different frequency ranges of the acoustic signal to be reproduced, so that the user is able to emphasize certain frequency ranges of the acoustic signal. However, other frequency ranges might be reproduced in an attenuated manner. Such sound or tone preferences, such as, for example, with regard to the frequency response of music, are dependent on the user or listener.
However, existing sound reproduction devices exhibit relatively limited ways of adjusting the sound, such as, for example, loudness, bass and treble, which may be set using a user interface of the sound reproduction device. The user interface may exemplarily include electro-mechanical control knobs or buttons or other regulating options for the user. In this way, the user may set the reproduction parameters of sound reproduction and in this way adjust same to different acoustic signals. Thus, the type of the acoustic signal may be significant, wherein the type of acoustic signal may indicate a classification of the information transferred by means of the acoustic signal. Examples of potential signal types are: popular music, rock music, speech. Furthermore, relatively frequently, the user may adjust the reproduction parameters, with regard to external disturbing noise or influence, such that the desired acoustic signal differs sufficiently from the disturbing noise so as to be differentiated therefrom.
Both the characteristics of the acoustic signal to be reproduced and the characteristics of the external disturbing noise typically vary over time. This means that typically they are not static but dynamic. Exemplarily, in an automobile, the acoustic conditions (such as ambient noise) change continuously while driving, so that different concealing effects interact with the set sound setting and, thus, sound preferences are dependent on the driving situation. Concealing (also referred to as masking effect) is a characteristic of human hearing according to which certain signal portions cannot be perceived or only be perceived in an altered manner in a simultaneous or temporally offset noise or overall sound. This means that a strong disturbing noise may cause the listener to hardly be able to perceive the useful signal, even if the disturbing noise is mainly in a limited frequency range.
Referring back to the example of reproducing sound in an automobile, a user may wish different settings for different driving situations. In this case, reproduction parameters must be set again by the user for the new driving situation. This means that the user really has to be in the driving situation in order to adjust the sound to said situation.
Some developments in the field of sound reproduction devices in motor vehicles allow certain reproduction parameters to be set automatically depending on the driving situation. Exemplarily, some radios in automobiles adjust the volume to the speed, i.e. the volume of the radio in an automobile increases with an increasing speed of the automobile itself. For this purpose, such radios in automobiles frequently comprise an interface to an on-board computer or a tachometer of the automobile in order to be able to detect the present speed of the automobile. The extent of increasing the volume here may be predetermined, such as, for example, in the form of a characteristic curve of increasing the volume over speed. Other systems are able to store the current driving situation and to associate sound settings selected by the user to certain situations. When the automobile is in a similar driving situation at a later point in time, the stored sound setting is retrieved and applied to the sound reproduction of the useful signal. U.S. Pat. No. 5,844,992, for example, describes a fuzzy logic device for automatic sound control in order to set a sound level, using automatic controls, such that the surroundings and operating conditions under which an audio device is operated may be considered. The control device may be personalized by inputting personal settings by a listener. For this purpose, the audio device comprises operating buttons for varying output amplification or bass-treble balance, which allow the listener to perform personal settings. The controller comprises converting and controlling means which scan the personal settings and correspondingly adjust thereto. This self-adjusting may be performed one after the other, for each personal setting defined. More precisely, the converting and controlling means may take into consideration the accumulation of the personal settings having been performed by the listener. Thus, the controller is able to gradually learn the personal preferences of the listener in the surroundings in which the audio device is used. However, with such a system, it is also necessary for the user to have been in a certain driving situation at least once and to have adjusted the sound to said driving situation by means of a reproduction parameter setting.
In portable sound reproduction devices, such as, for example, replay devices for files in the MP3 format, too, the listening situation may change since different types of useful signals may also be reproduced here and the surrounding noise may change.
It would be desirable to offer a user of a sound reproduction device a way of being able to set reproduction parameters for different listening situations depending on individual preferences, irrespective of the respective auditory situation currently present. It would also be desirable to offer, for example to persons hard of hearing, a way of permanently adjusting reproduction parameter settings for a sound reproduction device to different auditory situations in an easy and comfortable manner.